1) Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns an apparatus for the conditioning of muscular fibrils reaction coordination capacity by means of a pressure wave, and aesthetic and therapeutic application thereof.
2) Description of Related Art
In the living being, the locomotor system constitutes one of the fundamental hinges of its existence. It is constituted by the skeleton, composed by a complex osseous system mainly articulated and by striated muscles constituting the motor thereof or, more correctly the motors, since muscles are distributed by districts and each muscle is appointed to carrying out a definite movement.
The set of the possible movements is determined by the coordination of the action of one or more muscles in different districts, action accomplished through contraction or relaxation caused by electric signals, produced by the central nervous system by means of voluntary or reactive pulse, which reach the neuromuscular receptors and produce the contraction or extension of the myofibrils that constitute the muscular structure.
The work developable by a muscle depends on its mass, its training and its coordination capacity of the reaction of the single muscle fibrils with respect to the original motor exciter pulse. Recent studies demonstrated that this last condition is priority in order to maintain optimal muscular tonus, work capacity and resistance to fatigue.
The optimization capacity of the motor pulse and the coordination of the myofibrils response to the stimulus can be obtained in sane subjects in a natural way by means of exercises and trainings asking for very long times.
As far as carriers of pathologies of different nature is concerned, comprising those arising from injuries of the central nervous system, said pathologies can make it difficult or impossible the obtaining, even only acceptable, of the response of the muscular tissue to the stimulus through physical exercise.
A first, partial solution of said problem is constituted by electrical stimulation devices, i.e. devices provided of one or more electrical applicators, powered by a suitable generator, which can be positioned in direct contact with the skin of the patient in proximity of the muscle to be treated. The electric pulse, caused by the generator and transmitted to the muscle through the applicators, stimulates in the muscle a succession of involuntary contractions, in other words forces the muscles to an outside induced “training”.
However, the results obtained with these devices have some limitations, due to the fact that the produced electric stimulus can involve only the most superficial muscles. A consequence of this feature is that the patient, after the termination of the treatment by means of this kind of devices, in any case is compelled to perform a physical activity 20% higher than before the treatment, otherwise the entire cycle of treatment is invalidated (cycles of at least thirty therapy sessions, repeatable countless times). Further, said treatments allow obtaining the increasing of the so-called power module, or the muscle capacity to overcome a negative resistance expressed in kg is very low, about 8-12%.
In order to solve this problem, apparatuses were realized to replace the external application of an electric stimulus with the application of a mechanical or electromechanical stimulus to the muscle. Such apparatuses expose the muscle to a stimulus of such features to induce an improvement of the coordination of the muscle fibrils reaction with respect to the given pulse.
In particular, already in 1978, the space administrations of the United States and of the Soviet Union used the vibration's action in order to obtain the astronauts physical conditions recover after the return from space missions. Americans used a vibrating footboard, while Russians hanged astronauts to a vibrating pivot, after slinging them like for a parachute.
At present, the most commonly used devices for normal applications having therapeutic or aesthetic purpose more simply provide for a mechanical or electromechanical pulse generator having a variable frequency and at least an applicator, which is positioned in direct contact with the skin, in correspondence with the muscle to be treated, said generator and said applicator being connected by means of a system providing for the transmission of the impulse.
In particular, devices are known where this kind of stimulus is given by means of an applicator provided with a plurality of sticks acting with light knocks directly on the skin of the patient, in proximity of the muscle to treat.
This first kind of device was later replaced by devices where a pressure impulse is transmitted by the generator to a volume of air that, through the transmission system, essentially constituted by pneumatic pipes, extends from the generator down to a transducer, namely a hollow body opened on one side, constituting the applicator. The correct application of this device provides for the open section of the transducer to be positioned on the skin of the person undergoing the treatment in such a way to retain the air inside the device by being substantially airtight.
Nevertheless, the known embodiments are affected by a series of drawbacks; in particular, because of their own typology, they have a fundamental limit, can only be devoted to treat a single muscle at a time.
In fact, the known devices incur in difficulties in the transmission of the pressure pulse, fundamentally involving a progressive lowering of the pulse amplitude, from the generator down to the applicator. This is due to the methods of pulse transmission used up to now.
Further, the known devices does not allow to apply impulses of high amplitude on the muscle since, if said impulses overcome the compression capacity of the air, the transducer is taken off from the skin and the air escape towards the outside. The repeating of these taking off of the transducer, takes the same frequency of the transmitted pulse, at first causes a reddening of the skin and, after, can even arrive to cut it.
At present, the most commonly used devices for normal applications having therapeutic or aesthetic purpose more simply provide for a mechanical or electromechanical pulse generator having a variable frequency and at least an applicator, which is positioned in direct contact with the skin, in correspondence with the muscle to be treated, said generator and said applicator being connected by means of a system providing for the transmission of the impulse.
In particular, devices are known where this kind of stimulus is given by means of an applicator provided with a plurality of sticks acting with light knocks directly on the skin of the patient, in proximity of the muscle to treat.
This first kind of device was later replaced by devices where a pressure impulse is transmitted by the generator to a volume of air that, through the transmission system, essentially constituted by pneumatic pipes, extends from the generator down to a transducer, namely a hollow body opened on one side, constituting the applicator. The correct application of this device provides for the open section of the transducer to be positioned on the skin of the person undergoing the treatment in such a way to retain the air inside the device by being substantially airtight.
Nevertheless, the known embodiments are affected by a series of drawbacks; in particular, because of their own typology, they have a fundamental limit, namely can be devoted to treat a single muscle at a time.
In fact, the known devices incur in difficulties in the transmission of the pressure pulse, fundamentally involving a progressive lowering of the pulse amplitude, from the generator down to the applicator. This is due to the methods of pulse transmission used up to now.
Further, the known devices does not allow to apply impulses of high amplitude on the muscle since, if said impulses overcome the compression capacity of the air, the transducer is taken off from the skin and the air escape towards the outside. The repeating of these taking off of the transducer, takes the same frequency of the transmitted pulse, at first causes a reddening of the skin and, after, can even arrive to cut it.
As far as the pressure pulses production is concerned, different systems are used in the known devices. In particular, according to one of these systems, the pressure pulse is produced by a piston running inside a cylinder, moved by a system constituted by a connecting rod and by a driving handle connected by a rotary motor. Alternatively, a system constituted by a connecting rod and by a driving handle, connected by a rotary motor, can act on a membrane, which is forced to oscillate inside a pneumatic chamber, each oscillation causing a compression of the air present in the portion of the pneumatic chamber that is addressed to the transmission means.
The two described systems are equivalent for function and yield. Theoretically, they have the advantage of maintaining the pulse amplitude at a constant value, independently from the applied frequency, but, since this depends on the motor rotation velocity, in a ratio of one Hertz for each turn, they have big limitation as far as the maximum reachable frequency is concerned. In fact, in order to reach a pulse frequency of only 50 Hz, motor rotary regimes of 3000 rounds per minute are required.
Therefore, in practice, these pulse generation systems do not allow to produce for the production of oscillations having simultaneously the sufficient frequency and amplitude, the determination of a compromise amongst these two quantities becoming necessary. Since the frequency of the oscillations is directly influenced by the kind of treatment to which the muscle to be treated has to be submitted, the pulse amplitude is often sacrificed to the advantage of frequency.
This limit is further amplified, as it was already seen, by the pulse transmission method, because of the compressibility of the used transmission fluid, namely the air, and of the friction effect produced the quick movements of the pulse transmission fluid in contact with the walls of the transmission conduits, causes a further damping of the wave amplitude.